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Public Ignorance About Heart Failure 'Putting Lives at Risk'

Posted on: Wednesday, 31 August 2005, 09:00 CDT

There is a woeful level of ignorance about heart failure and its symptoms across Europe, researchers say. A survey involving almost 8,000 people in nine European countries, including the UK, found that 90% had heard of heart failure.

But despite this, only 3% could identify the condition from a description of its typical symptoms.

The researchers, writing in the European Heart Journal today, sy this compares with half who could identify a stroke from its symptoms, and a third who recognised the signs of angina.

Important symptoms of heart failure include breathlessness, tiredness and swollen ankles.

The condition affects an estimated 14 million Europeans, with one in five likely to develop heart failure in their lifetime. Lead author Dr Willem Remme, director of the Sticares Cardiovascular Research Institute in the Netherlands, said, 'The low awareness of heart failure that we found is shocking and is putting lives at risk.

'It has serious implications for individuals and for public health throughout Europe.

'If the public don't understand how common and how life- threatening this condition is then they are not likely to seek medical help early, and they are also unlikely to demand appropriate measures from healthcare providers.'

The Study of Heart failure Awareness and Perception in Europe (Shape) survey found some major misconceptions about heart disease.

Two-thirds of those questioned thought heart failure patients lived longer than those with cancer or HIV.

In reality, 45% of heart failure patients die within a year of their first hospital admission.

Heart failure also has worse five-year survival than many common cancers and the average time between HIV diagnosis and developing Aids is now well over a decade.

A third of those questioned thought heart failure was a normal consequence of ageing, but it actually has many causes, with getting older itself not one of them.

Dr Remme said the results were 'pretty depressing'.

Source: Western Mail

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